


night market

by orphan_account



Category: Splatoon
Genre: First Dates, M/M, Pining, maybe? i mean they're just stupid, rider is a tsundere as usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24515443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: rider and emperor go out on an undercover date.
Relationships: Emperor/Rider (Splatoon)
Kudos: 25





	night market

**Author's Note:**

> please be nice to me about this i wrote this... a while back. but it's still cute so i feel like i can post it. enrai real.

It was a nice night out, in Inkopolis. A nice night out, perfect for… a date. As rivals go on dates often, right? They try and point out each other's weaknesses, and plan to get at each other and bring them down... Because. Rivalries are competitive like that. 

Emperor had this in mind, since him and Rider were still rivals. But, rivals… watered down. They weren’t at each other’s throats, but still rivals nonetheless.

Though, Rider has been the one in his sights for too long now. A steadily rising inkling, in the spans of Ranked and competitive gameplay, and someone who’s been defaced in the way that he has by their blue accomplice. Rider and Emperor have gotten acquainted with each other, since all of the battles they’ve fought together have brought them closer.

Closer as in “they want to learn more from each other”. Emperor knows that Rider is... interesting. He can use a dynamo like any other player, but his tactics are something to analyze. They’ve practiced against each other as times passed, as casual one-offs. They’ve taken empty stages, and fought until their legs were sore.

Their relationship is casual now, relaxed… compared to what it was before. Two strangers, hating each other’s guts. Now, Emperor has the audacity to ask Rider out on a date. On a “date”, an undercover date… An outing, is what Emperor called it. 

And so they met at the night market. A bustling crowd was seen from afar, both of them looking ahead as they met up at a lamp post.

“A nice day out, isn’t it?” Emperor glanced over at the taller, secretly loathing the fact that he wasn’t above him for once.

“It’s night.” Rider scoffed, staring down at the royal bastard. “But yeah, I guess. I’ve never been out to one of these. Too loud for me.”

Emperor leaned against the lamp post, kicking his leg up and smirking. “I’m glad that I could show you this. There’s plenty of good experiences to come from a market like this.”

Rider blinked at how… ungodly extra this guy was. So over the top, god. “I bet, but I’m not spending everything in my wallet today.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Bullshit.”

They talked, and soon headed off into the crowd of people. Rider donned a facemask, the Firefin logo covering up the lower half of his face. Emperor had put in different contacts, his eyes a greyish blue instead of the golden yellow they were normally. His makeup was off, freckles covering his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. They wore casual outfits, comfort over presentation. Emperor still put effort into how he looked, but it wasn’t like the extravagant overcoat he usually wore.

The heels of Rider’s boots were something he wasn’t used to, and Emperor had completely discarded the enperries, black dakroniks in their place. The height difference hopefully could throw off the.. very persistent fans of the two. Rider’s tentacles were black, tinted with lime at the ends, and Emperor had shifted his to an orange-y yellow rather than a plain gold.

Emperor, during their walk, strayed behind Rider a few times. So he could lead the way, and observe everything on his own. Emperor did point out a couple of stands, food or otherwise, and always perked up and offered to get anything for Rider as the time came. 

“Takoyaki.” Rider muttered under his breath, glancing at a stand and reading the text plastered over the signs. “Really? Isn’t that…” He squints, and reads over everything again.

“Do you have your contacts in?”

“I do. Shut up. Isn’t that octopus?”

Emperor stood beside Rider, looking at the stand and seeing the worker behind it prepare the servings. “Of course it is. Same way people serve squid.”

“I’ve.. never heard of that.” Emp rolled his eyes at him and walked over to order some.

As Emperor stood by the register, waiting for the cook to prepare the takoyaki by hand, Rider scanned the stands surrounding them and wandered off. “One moment,” He offhandedly said, the other hardly noticing him leave.

A jewelry display, huh? Rider glanced over the options, blank expression looking intimidating to the others browsing. His eyes met a necklace with a gold charm hanging near the end, an arrow shape with engravings making it look like a squid. It was… cute. Annoyingly cute. The squid-shape’s only shown on newbie shirts and hats and all. But it was pretty fitting as a charm.

Rider read over the price tag, a small cost of 900 coins branding the necklace. With merely 10,000 on hand, he thinks over the purchase and carefully takes it off of it’s hanger.

Rider holds out the cash he took from his pocket, and sets it on the counter. The inkling behind it lifts his head, meets Rider’s eyes and immediately takes the cash due to the look the Yellow-green leader was giving him. Intimidating. He always gave off that impression.

The necklace was shoved into his pocket, and he walks over to Emperor, just turning around and holding a food tray with takoyaki set in two neat rows. Their eyes meet, and Emp smiles a bit. Another good part about being undercover is that they can.. relax for once. Rider stops tensing his shoulders at the sight of it, and stops glaring at everything. Casual.

“So, want to try?” Emp holds a skewer out for Rider. He takes it, and stabs one of the takoyaki in the tray. Emperor’s face lightens as he tries his sample, and Rider uses the skewer as a toothpick. It was tasty to one of them, at least.

As they walked through the market, Emperor stopped laying back and pointed out things more often. Obvious things, right in front of them. “Hey, look.” He tugged on Rider’s arm, the one now holding the takoyaki plate. “That stand. I went and saw them last time. Their company is pretty amazing, they’re impressive promotional speakers. They’re donating to plenty of foundations that help improve habitats for animals and natural resources-- and so, th-”

“Shut up. I can read.” Emperor turns his head, and Rider shoves a takoyaki ball directly into his mouth. Emp was thrown off guard, and he shuts up, the skewer sticking out of his mouth as he chews his food. Rider… wasn’t expecting that to work.

The night market was fun to walk through, and Emperor may have bought a few things for Rider along the way… but, the entire time, Rider hadn’t mentioned the necklace at all. It was only when they were walking from the market, the moon straight over their heads, when he brought it up.

“..Psst. Hey.” Emperor looked over, brushing one of his tentacles out of the way and into his normal hairstyle again. 

“Mm? Yes?” Rider stops them, and pulls to the side of the walkway. 

“I got you this.” The necklace was pulled out of his pocket, and hidden carefully in his palm. He holds it out to the other, offering for Emp to take it.

And.. that certainly threw the royal bastard off guard. He stared at the necklace, and very delicately took it into his hands and examined it. “Ah... I... Didn’t expect you to spend any of your money on me. Didn’t you say you had… higher priorities than that?” He, oh so gently, put the necklace on.

With a scoff, Rider averted his eyes and kept walking. “Don’t take it personally, it was just a secondhand thought…”

“I appreciate it. Really. It was nice that you took up my offer to come here.” 

“Stop making this emotional. It’s just a necklace…” Rider huffs, and Emperor trails behind him, the faintest smile on his face.

A train ride from the market to the apartment complex lead them back to Emperor’s home. Emperor’s hand absentmindedly gripped Rider’s arm, the former trailing behind him most of the time they walked. Both of them were getting tired, but Emperor was used to being up about now. It wasn’t… too late, but it was late enough. “So, are we parting for tonight?”

“It’s..” Rider blinks, and looks around. “...” It looks like he forces himself to process something, like a laggy computer trying to load up an image. He pats his pockets, front and back, before finally realizing. “...Oh. My keys.”

“Your keys?”

“I. Lost them.”

“Ah, that’s a shame. Come on in, then.”

The door opens, and the two walk in together. Emperor leads Rider through the apartment, and shows him where he could grab a snack, or change into something more comfortable… Rider stares at everything, since this jerkwad had… so many extra, unnecessary things. Even his fridge was fancy. What the hell?

“Make yourself at home, feel free to do whatever you want.” Emperor sits on the couch in the living room, relaxing and kicking his feet up on the cushion in front of him. All Rider wanted to do was sit down, so he took off the hoodie he wore and sat on the couch next to Emperor. 

The TV flickered to life, Emp leaning forward and crossing his arms. Rider raised his head, propped it up against the back of the couch and watched the TV as well. A typical, boring show… It was more of background noise to them than anything. A few minutes passed, and Emperor stood to get himself something to drink.

Rider didn’t bother paying attention, dozing off by the second. He was… tired. He doesn’t go out too often, and if he goes out he fights. Or, practices, at the very least. He sets his elbow on his leg, and props his head up with a hand. The TV fades to a blur, and once Emperor comes back, he notices the dumbass on the couch completely asleep. 

Emp sets his drink down on a side table, and sits down a smidgeon closer to Rider. It wasn’t much, but he couldn’t help but notice that Rider’s head was slipping off it's perch. With gentle movements, and a bit of reluctancy, he takes Rider’s shoulder and pulls him to the side. Rider leans, and relaxes. He sets his head on Emperor’s shoulder, still out like a light.

The sound of the TV seemed to fade to static, Emperor staring down at the other’s face. Huh… Jeez, has he ever seen him this close up? He focuses on the faintest scars littering Rider’s face, noticing one right on his lower lip.. You’d never be able to notice it, if you weren’t looking close. He…

Oh god, why was he staring? Emp averted his eyes immediately as he noticed his mistake, and zoned back in on the TV. He sorted out everything in his mind, and realized he was… stuck here. Rider practically trapped him, asleep at his side… He sighed, and decided to just.. relax and let the whole situation be.

He takes a folded blanket off of the arm of the couch, unravels it as carefully as he can and wraps it around Rider’s back. It only took him a few minutes before he dozed off as well, head in turn resting on Rider’s. It was a comfortable moment between the two.


End file.
